Snow day

Returning from our New Year travels last year, we were met at the gate by our resident pheasant.  This year, returning from the same travels but arriving after dark, we were greeted by a tawny owl hooting nearby.  Welcome to another year in the garden!

Winter has finally set in.  The weather over Christmas and New Year was mostly wet (though the two big days themselves were both pleasant) and mild; since the start of the year it has been drier and gradually turning colder.  Snow forecast for the start of last week didn’t amount to anything much, although remarkably a gritter lorry came through the village on Sunday evening.  Yesterday the snow came in earnest, with a south-easterly blowing it about; outside the back door the flagstones are clear, but alongside the car there was a drift over a foot deep until I dug a path through it, and it’s 4-5 inches deep on the drive.  A stay-at-home day, and I haven’t ventured out today either; mostly only 4x4s are moving through the village.  (No photos; it's grey and cold out there.)

Until the snow covered everything, late winter plants were coming along nicely.  Three snowdrops (G. Atkinsii) in bloom down by the bottom fence, a few winter aconites near the pond and a single cyclamen coum bloom alongside them.  The winter honeysuckle had finally managed to put out a few blossoms, and viburnum ‘Dawn’ and the winter jasmine were also in flower.  Significantly, weed seedlings (now dealt with) were coming through on the drive and under the apple cordons.

The main thing happening alongside the apple cordons, though, is more serious.  When I mentioned the ivy in the wall last time, I hadn’t meant to tempt fate.  But just before Christmas we looked out one day and part of the wall had come down, on top of three of the cordons.  It has been bulging for a few months, but didn’t seem to be in imminent danger of collapse.   That part of the wall actually has little ivy on it, at least on our side, but it’s next to the neighbour’s big ash tree, and I suspect the tree’s movements have undermined it; it also appears to be the favoured place for small neighbours to make illicit crossings in search of misplaced footballs, which won’t have helped.  We managed to dig out the cordons, and stabilise the rubble sufficiently, but it will need rebuilding.  I see that, in the last few days, some more has come down into the neighbours’ garden, so we might get some progress when the weather improves.  It’ll be a difficult job, though; their garden is much lower than ours, and we have the cordons across it, so I’m not sure how we’re going to manage that!

Indoors, a pot of Paperwhite narcissi ‘Ziva’ planted up in early December (a half-price bargain) were in full bloom when we got back, providing lovely scent to help ease the bareness of the house once the Christmas greenery was taken down.  While away, we also acquired another orchid (£5 in Tesco – we like bargains) which is blooming happily, and last year’s £5 Tesco orchid (which bloomed until October) is in bud again.  The tender outdoor plants that are overwintering indoors are doing well too.  The blue succulent is growing away well (too well; I don’t have room for it if it gets much bigger!), and the brugmannsia is sprouting from the bottom.  This plant hasn’t had a very happy life with me; it has turned into a 4ft bare stem with a sad little tuft of leaves on top.  With new growth at the base of the plant, I have the option of cutting it down (and turning the top into a cutting?), which will have the added attraction of making it much easier to accommodate!  The cordyline/phormium is in the cold upstairs bathroom and seems to be making the best of it.

There hadn’t been much remarkable birdlife until this cold spell, other than a treecreeper seen on the big ash tree over Christmas.  Food left out when we went away was untouched; presumably it was too mild for the birds to bother.  Yesterday, in the snow, the usual birds came for food – blackbirds, robin, dunnock, sparrows, tits - but today we had a ‘first’ for our garden when a jay came to feed.  After digging a bit in the snow by the plum tree and investigating a few other corners, it finally plucked up the courage to come to the patio to feed.  Other birds kept to the far end of the garden, including the marsh tit.  What a pity the Big Garden Birdwatch is next weekend and not this!